Greenwich to Woolwich cycle lane to be made permanent

A cycle route between Greenwich and Woolwich is to be made permanent according to a new council report.

An experimental traffic order was made on 1st June 2023 for the route which saw dedicated lanes from east Greenwich to Charlton before sharing bus lanes to Woolwich ferry.

That is due to a lapse at the end of November hence a decision is now required.

The route is part of a discontinuous link between Tower Bridge in central London and Plumstead with gaps in Greenwich town centre and Charlton to Woolwich that are due to be connected – one day.

The first section between east Greenwich and Charlton went in back in 2020 ending near Charlton station. It still does.

Work has been drawn up for changes from Charlton towards Woolwich ferry for many years predating the 2020 introduction to the west.

In recent years further plans have been drawn up for Woolwich ferry to connect to existing cycle lanes to and from Plumstead station and thousands of new homes in the area.

Now the existing section between east Greenwich and Charlton will become permanent yet still contains some grim spots. One such is the notorious sections below the Blackwall approach flyover or Angerstein roundabout.

This was a death-trap before work was carried out on a lane below – but it’s still not exactly an inviting place.

It still amazes how TfL and Greenwich havn’t been able to use funding from many new developments in the area nor Silvertown tunnel cash to improve this space. All physical street changes being paid for out of Silvertown tunnel funds – even some distance from the tunnel – are located north of the Thames. Not a penny for Greenwich.

East Greenwich junction also remains a hostile, ugly, unsafe place littered with street clutter that seems to exist simply to advertise Greenwich Council leisure centres while obscuring visibility.

Ironically people may actually use the adjacent leisure centre more often if the streets nearby weren’t so bad on foot and on bikes. Banners everywhere won’t fix that.

As the lanes approach Greenwich town centre and the start of Cycleway 4 in Deptford there’s a detour via Old Woolwich Road then through the Old Royal Naval College.

One day a dedicated, permanent route through Greenwich town centre may arise but 15 years after Greenwich pedestrianisation plans commenced, nothing is decided.

Greenwich Council state a reduction in cyclists recently and blame the broken nature of the route:

“Cycling levels were found to have decreased during the experimental period by 11% and 29% respectively.

“The lack of a consistent cycle facility beyond the trial route is likely to influence these levels. We would expect to see an increase in cycling levels across the route once connections at either end of the route to the east and west are completed.”

That seems a fair assumption. Thousands of car-free homes will line the route from Plumstead to Greenwich when an unbroken link exists.

When I lived beside what is now the proposed route I would have definitely cycled into work had a safe lane existed. It didn’t then, so I wasn’t going to given the hassle.

Bus impact

The report states Transport for London have been monitoring bus times in two locations.

The western location at Romney Road (in both directions) sees “journey time and reliability…now in line with what TfL would expect based on pre-pandemic (and pre scheme) data”.

The measuring point between Angerstein Roundabout to Anchor and Hope Lane saw “a number of occasions of extended bus journey times, in the eastbound direction along this corridor average bus performance in terms of journey time and reliability is now in line with what TfL would expect based on pre-pandemic (and pre scheme) data.”

However things are worse heading westbound: “Data shows that journey times for buses travelling west along the corridor is not as good as TfL would hope, with regular spikes beyond the journey time recorded pre-pandemic.”

In terms of impact on other traffic the report states “the data shows that following the introduction of the scheme average journey times were initially longer than the 2019 baseline but have since returned to be broadly in line with average pre pandemic levels.”

Safety

No collisions have been reported between pedestrians and cyclists while those between vehicles and pedestrians have increased. The cause is being investigated.

With higher number of new housing developments and footfall in the area, that could play a part.

Changes

With the ending of an experimental traffic order a number of changes are listed:

• Conversion of temporary materials along the route, including kerbs, infill and bolt down tactile surfacing to permanent.
• Investigate cycle connections to side roads and shopping areas
• Improve public realm at Angerstein, and identify opportunities for planting along the route

• Review road markings at Blackwall Lane junction to improve legibility for drivers
• Review scheme, particularly around bus stop bypasses, to confirm consistency with DfT and TfL design guidance
• Review cycle wayfinding, notably at key decision points such as Old Woolwich Road/ A206
• Any changes deemed necessary following the review of video surveys at the Blackwall Lane and Rathmore Road locations

Cycleway 4

Once in Deptford it’s much smoother sailing on a bike all the way to central London along Cycleway 4.

Many large developments including Deptford Landings seen below and those in Rotherhithe around Canada Water station from British Land.

This stretch already seems better used since the continuous lane went in, with a missing stretch outside Surrey Quays station opened recently.

Once the east Greenwich to Charlton stretch is permanent some much-needed improvements can happen.

Then comes the tricky job of working out what to do with Greenwich town centre as well as funding and commencing that Charlton to Woolwich ferry stretch before a route through Woolwich town centre. There’s much to do.